Aligning strategies: Animal nutrition and Sustainability in the post-COVID world

Sustainable ingredients are key to growth and differentiation in the production chain.?

An unprecedented increase in demand for animal protein, including meat, eggs, milk, fish, seafood, and other animal products, is inevitable by 2050. The projections come from the FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and are based on a projected world population of nearly 10 billion this year.?

The data on population growth expectations and discussions on ensuring food security are not new and serve as guides to boost the growth of agribusiness and the protein production chain. FAO emphasizes ensuring that animal protein production is safe, affordable, and sustainable to meet this demand, including implementing measures to improve food safety, animal health, and environmental sustainability in animal protein production systems.?

However, sustainability is still associated with corporate social responsibility practices in organizations. In a post-covid world, a new light has landed on old discussions, leaving the most traditional arenas and opening a new and deeper understanding of how sustainable practices can impact the success of agribusiness operations and protein production, generating increase productivity, reduction of costs, and value in the final product to the consumer.?

For companies at the forefront, those that place the sustainability of their operations at the center of their strategy, this change brings the benefit of generating competitive advantage, differentiation, and accelerating growth and impact.?

SUSTAINABILITY AND NUTRITION

Sustainable practices relate to public commitments impacting society, the economy, and the environment, such as the ESG and SBTis (Science Based Targets initiative). Currently, the theme also encompasses issues such as ingredient strategy, feed production, handling, slaughter, and processing practices and how they contribute negatively or positively to the business's success.?

From a nutrition standpoint, more than ever in the different protein production chains, each item in the formulation must generate results through productivity gains and/or added value, including the product's final impact.?

A nutrition strategy designed for better feed conversion rates, palatability, and digestibility and the main animal health KPIs is the starting point, which, according to this new vision, are complemented by new indicators, such as animal welfare, responsible use of natural resources, carbon footprint and the impact on human health and nutrition of the protein produced.?

Feed represents the greatest opportunity channel for applying this holistic view of sustainability precisely because it is the largest component in animal protein production costs and highly impacts the composition of sustainability indicators. The carbon footprint in the different scopes, land, water, and energy use, impact on biodiversity, and nutritional impact for the final consumer must be considered now.?

Globally, the pace at which consumers choose sustainably sourced products has accelerated over the past three years and will continue to do so. We reflect on how our suppliers and the nutrition strategy align with the new sustainability vision. How does the decision on each diet item impact the new sustainability indicators, and how can they generate gains and differentiation??

"Sustainable ingredients are key to growth and differentiation. The nutrition strategy designed for better feed conversion rates, palatability, and digestibility, and the main animal health KPIs are the starting point, which, according to this new vision, are complemented by new indicators, such as animal welfare, responsible use of natural resources, carbon footprint and the impact on human health and nutrition of the protein produced."

SUSTAINABLE INGREDIENTS THROUGH TECHNOLOGY

Omega-3s are essential and critical nutrients for human and animal health, with more than 30,000 studies published over the last three decades being an example of how a sustainable ingredient can impact business. Fish oil is the main source of omega-3 for the different industries that use it. In 2020, 73% of the 1.2 million metric tons of fish oil available was used in aquaculture; the rest was used in the pet food, poultry, swine, dairy cattle, and human food supplement industries.?

The prospects for growth in world fish oil production volumes are negative due to phenomena such as El Nino and La Nina. In addition, there has been a continuing trend of high price volatility for the ingredient over the past 20 years. However, with the accelerated pace of growth in these same industries, with no prospect of a slowdown, we can predict that the oceans will only provide more omega-3 after suffering impacts.?

In nature, microalgae are the original source of omega-3s, as they are at the base of the fish food chain. By cultivating microalgae through industrial fermentation technology, it is possible to generate new access to the original source, without the need for fishing and fish oil production to produce a technological and sustainable omega-3.?

The innovation of omega-3 produced directly from microalgae makes it possible to continue the growth of the different industries that use it, generating a positive impact for businesses in various areas of value. As well as helping to ensure a steady supply of raw materials and reducing the risk of supply chain disruptions, it can generate cost savings through increased productivity.?

Also, this new way of producing omega-3 helps to mitigate the negative impacts of protein production on the environment, such as greenhouse gas emissions and loss of biodiversity, as it reduces the pressure on the use of natural resources, contributing to the preservation of the oceans, and can generate productivity gains due to the benefits to animal health for poultry, pigs, cattle, fish and pets.?

Another highlight is promoting the availability and accessibility of healthy and sustainable food choices with a new appeal for nutrition and sustainability. A concrete example is Kvar?y Arctic?, a Norwegian salmon producer who used microalgae omega-3 as a critical point in their product and marketing strategy. The company has reduced the use of fish oil and, at the same time, increased the inclusion of omega-3 in the diet, placing itself at the top of the US market in less than three years as a premium brand, receiving the highest sustainability certifications in the industry, including officially certifying your salmon through the American Heart Association? Heart-Check Food Certification Program. According to Kvar?y Arctic?, their salmon has twice the omega-3 content of other farmed salmon. A 100g serving of Kvar?y Arctic? Atlantic Salmon has over 2,000mg of long-chain omega-3s, helping to exceed the weekly intake recommendation set by the US Dietary Guidelines and the American Heart Association.?

The strategy is similar to the Brazilian Mantiqueira, which innovated and started selling eggs in pharmacies, educating and reinforcing the benefits of eggs with omega-3 DHA in human nutrition.?

In summary, feed and protein manufacturers looking for new growth opportunities should consider putting sustainability at the center of their business strategy by adopting a holistic understanding of how animal nutrition ingredients relate to health and animal performance and post-covid consumer demand.?Reducing costs, ensuring a stable supply of raw materials, protecting the environment, and producing value-added products with a high level of animal performance in harmony is the result of a strategy designed to align nutrition and sustainability.

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